The Bruno Years

State Senator Joseph Bruno is an old-fashioned politician who never saw much reason to hide the power and influence he accumulated during the decades he represented parts of the Capital District. Senator Bruno was—is—a character out of a William Kennedy novel, a white-haired, well-tailored power broker with a taste for racehorses and political patronage. His retirement, announced last week, will leave Albany a duller place.

When Mr. Bruno took over as majority leader of the State Senate in 1995, many downstaters believed he would be more interested in ideology than in wheeling and dealing. True, Mr. Bruno was a conservative Republican from a conservative district, and his caucus traditionally was more concerned with upstate and the suburbs.

But Mr. Bruno turned out to be a good deal more pragmatic, and a good deal more sympathetic to New York City, than anybody suspected. He certainly did not abandon his traditional views on social issues, from abortion to gay marriage. But he did prove to be far more pragmatic than anyone would have predicted when he succeeded Long Island’s Ralph Marino nearly two decades ago.

Mr. Bruno’s tenure as majority leader coincided with the city’s revival from the crime and despair of the early 1990s, and its defiant comeback from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. During those years, successive New York mayors found Mr. Bruno to be a steady ally in the fight to bring down crime, bring up reading scores and make the city more business friendly.

Mr. Bruno’s support for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s takeover of the city’s school system was one of several examples of the senator’s willingness to support needed reform in the five boroughs. You won’t find Mr. Bruno’s name on ballparks, airline terminals and other public spaces in New York, but his contribution to the city’s revival was as important as it was understated.

Much has been made in recent days of Mr. Bruno’s aggressive advocacy for his upstate district. For some critics, Mr. Bruno seemed to represent the worst side of pork-barrel politics. He made sure his Capital District constituents were taken care of during budget talks—thus, the public testimonials.

Anybody who has been upstate over the past 20 years, however, knows how badly the region has been left behind. The blue-collar economy beyond the Rockefeller Mall has continued to rust away, leaving residents with fewer opportunities and an uneasy sense that morning will be a long time coming again in places like Troy. Mr. Bruno has been a one-person economic safety net for his constituents. It has not been glamorous work, but it has been necessary.

The thanks Mr. Bruno is receiving from his neighbors, and from the city, are well deserved.